This study is an attempt to better understand the DMZ beyond the political border, physical barrier, military buffer, and container of biodiversity, and understand its complex spatial operations. After the Korean War, the “38th parallel line” became more fixed in a different form. How and who drew the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that makes up the DMZ? Why was it constructed? How is it maintained? With these questions in mind, this Penny White award study focused its investigation on the current tourism industry flourishing around the DMZ on the South Korean side, and how we can start to read it in a more productive and meaningful way.

What kind of touristic operations are taking place? How do they impact the contiguous 4.8 to 20 Km (3 to 12 miles) wide Civilian Control Area (CCA)? What do the estimated 1.2 million land mines on the South Korean side represent to these touristic operations, and the future of
these territories and especially their settlement patterns?